Ann was best friends with a girl named Jennifer in high school. After high school was over, Ann started working, while Jennifer went to college. Ann and Jennifer stayed in contact for some time, but eventually lost contact. They ran into each other many years later, as they were both in town for a funeral. They sat together at the funeral and decided to talk on the phone the next night at 6:30.
That night, Ann began getting ready for the call at around 6 p.m. She got all the kids into the other room, checked that the phone was working, got a pen and paper, all in preparation for this phone call. At around 6:20, Ann reminded everyone to keep the noise down. At 6:25, she checked the phone again. At 6:30, she sat right next to the phone. Confused, at 6:40, she rechecked the phone. At 6:45, she checked the clocks to make sure they were right. At 6:50, she decided to call Jennifer to see what was wrong. Ann picked up the phone and dialed the 10 numbers. Ann heard, “Hello?”
“Hey, everything OK?” she replied. “I thought you were going to call me tonight at 6:30?”
Jennifer hesitated, but managed to mumble these words, “Well, we hadn’t talked in so long and I got caught up doing some other things, nothing to worry about, just stuff…uh… I figured I’d call you some other time…ummm…I didn’t think it was that important.”
Ann was crushed.
Do we understand that sometimes we treat God like Jennifer treated Ann in this story? When is the last time you prayed? When is the last time you read and studied the Bible? When is the last time you went to church? The Bible describes a Christian’s life as a relationship between Jesus and that person. For a relationship to work there must be communication. A relationship requires daily, continual, conscious effort to build that relationship. That relationship, however, can only begin if personally believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sin to pay for your disobedience.(Josh Landrum is the pastor of Knoxville Baptist Church. He can be reached at 823-4441.)